PROPER REVIEW TO COME... but this might be my favorite Katherine to date. She is MY romance queen forever and ever.

F you, Katherine Center for making me cry as much as you did!

The Rom-Commers is everything I wanted it to be and MORE. The build up, the arguments, the anxiety, the grief, all incredibly written.
I saw myself in Emma, and also Charlie. I loved the friendship they had, and the rom com things spread throughout the book.

Sometimes I feel rom com books can be SO cheesy so I was a little nervous, but all of the cheese was perfect. Nothing too much, just the right amount. I will be recommending this book to literally anyone and everyone, even my husband who is wonderful and amazing...but doesn't read rom coms.

Oh, my heart! This has to be a top favorite Katherine Center novel for me. I laughed and cried and inhaled this book. It is so good! This one features a super grumpy, reclusive screenwriter who has written the worse rom-com. He needs help but doesn't want help. Unfortunately for Charlie, Emma has arrived to do just that....help Charlie improve his screenplay. This is the dream job for Emma with the dream writer. She has been such a fan....until she meets him. They decidedly do not hit it off. Emma has left her ailing father for the first time to travel to LA to work with Charlie for six weeks only to learn that he didn't ask for her and doesn't want her. They do end up working together but it is fraught from the start.

I think what is so fantastic about Charlie and Emma is how fully formed they are. There is wit, banter, and laughs but there are also real discussions and there is true depth to these two. It was a delight to see their relationship develop through their vulnerabilities. Emma is a lover of the rom-com and Charlie is very much not. Watching these two work through their very different feelings about the work they are doing was so much fun. I smiled throughout this whole book and became a bit annoying telling all of my friends that they had to read this book right now! I will continue this trend by telling you....read it. Right now. You will not be sorry.

Another amazing book from Katherine Center! This is going to be a great addition to your summer reading pile! Emma is a delightful character. Selfless, funny, hopeful romantic. Charlie is a big time Hollywood writer and is totally grumpy sunshine. I loved the banter and small moments between Emma and Charlie. And can we talk about Cuthbert? So freaking adorable!!
Just like all of her books, there are heavy moments but they are meaningful and balanced perfectly with humor and happiness.
We even got a surprise cameo from a character in one of her prior novels! Just a perfect rom-com! This one publishes on June 11 so get your pre-orders in now!

Thank you St Martins Press and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Rom-Commers delivers on its title — a delightful blend of romance and comedy, with pathos and sorrow and day-to-day challenges that keep it grounded and real. Katherine Center once again provides a book with terrific lead characters, great chemistry, a plot that makes you feel all the feelings, and a promise of a happy ending to cheer for. Don’t miss it!

This has been such a banner season for swoony rom coms, so how could I resist a book literally called The Rom Commers? My favorite subcategory of this genre is the kind with hilarious banter, real emotional stakes, and zany side plots, so if you like that too, be sure to pick this one up. I really loved Katherine Center’s last book, Hello Stranger, which fits this description, and The Rom-Commers was just as charming, funny & satisfying.

Our protagonist Emma is on her way to be the next Nora Ephron before family obligations hinder her writing career, and Charlie is an amazingly successful Hollywood writer who needs to write an amazing rom com despite the fact that he doesn’t believe in love and just wants to be left alone to moulder in his mansion like a grouchy vampire wearing wrinkled corduroy pants. This is their one shot to get it right, but you know how it is—first they need hundreds of pages of witty banter and sexual tension. This was such a fun read—I would recommend!

Also, never before has a guinea pig been used to persuade me that a man might have a heart of gold. A genre first!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this sneak peek at one of this summer’s dreamiest romances.

Loved this book!! I haves loved every book I’ve read of Katherine centers. I expect them to be easy fun reads. A great beach read!

3.75⭐️
The premise of this book sounded fun and I really liked Emma’s characters and overall I do think this book was fun and it had its good moments. Even though I really wanted to love this book there was something missing… I can appreciate a grumpy sunshine situation but Charlie was so rude and insulting (even 45% into the book) and I just needed him to redeemed himself more for me to truly fall for him and the relationship. I appreciated the fact that Emma was so insistent with her passion for telling love stories and their importance. The “plot twists” at the end did have me scared but thankfully the magic of romances is a HEA.

Katherine Center is a treasure. There’s not one book she’s written where I haven’t been charmed by the witty banter or impressed by her writing talent. She’s so good at hitting that sweet spot in the emotional tone of her stories, never letting the romance become too cloying or the more serious aspects of the story too depressing. She writes characters that are believable and not always at their best, but you’d still want to know them.

Having said and meant EVERY word of that, I will say that just a tiny bit of the shine was missing for me with this latest book, and I can’t tell if it’s the book, a touch of genre burnout with rom-coms/romance lately or both. The writing was still as stellar, ALL the characters still as complicated and charming, the plot was unique and the humor was pitch-perfect. Honestly, it’s a rom-com lover’s dream! I did enjoy it - especially the humor. Even if I didn't LOVE it as much as her other books I've read, it's still a very good story!

If I had to pick the one thing that kept me from falling completely head over heels for this book, it would boil down to chemistry. Emma and Charlie were both great characters with a healthy mix of good and less desirable traits, and I laughed frequently at their sarcastic and funny banter, but for reasons that utterly elude me, I just didn’t feel that magical spark between them quite as much as with Center’s other literary couples. They made me smile and feel good in that “Aww, that was nice way”, rather than the “I’ll love this couple until the end of time!!” way. Emma’s story with her family was so touching and sweet, and I loved her dad and sister, Sylvie. If that was the story, this would be an easy 5 stars.

I recommend this to those who love a clean romance, fun, snappy banter, complicated characters, and a great family story!

Oh my gosh, this book had me smiling like an absolut weirdo the entire time I was reading it. I don’t think there’s a book by Katherine Center that I haven’t absolutely loved. She is just an exceptional writer who always hits you in the feels.

Emma was the most perfectly imperfect FMC, quirky and kind and waiting in the wings for her big break as a screenplay writer. MMC Charlie was an absolute curmudgeon, negative and cranky but still somehow managed to be endearing. Their banter was seriously, to die for- I mean I was straight up cackling for a good portion of this book. From their first interaction, to the very last page I was all in on them. I could just feel Charlie’s love for Emma coming off the pages. I also don’t usually love when the narrator talks off page to the reader but for some reason it really worked here and just added to the overall humor.

There are of course so very difficult topics covered, like loss of a parent and being a caregiver to a sick parent, cancer, and divorce. But these are all written with such grace that it makes you just appreciate what the character is going through. The ending had me majorly tearing up.
This is a truly enjoyable romcom and will definitely be recommended it for summer beach reads!

Emma has spent the last 10 years as primary caregiver for her father. Now she has a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to California and work with a famous screen writer. ARC from NetGalley.

So I don’t usually find myself tearing up at the end of a ‘rom-com’ but guess what everybody, this book made me do it. Maybe it’s my fragile emotional state today but it could also be that this Katherine Center book has me feeling all the feels and re-evaluating life choices and TBR picks like not every book or author can do.

Emma is an absolutely perfect (yet of course imperfect) main character, except that she’s living the life of a supporting actor, maybe she’s even hiding in the wings - until she’s thrust into a role she could have never imagined, the unwilling co-lead in with an equally unwilling co-lead who just happens to be her absolute favourite yet in real life unattainable person. And he also happens to be absolutely perfect for her - but they need to be grumpy and stand-offish for the first half of the book or so to get the point across - can’t make it too easy, right?

This book ticks EVERY box for this avid romance reader and it may or may not be my new favourite Katherine Center book and my recc of the summer if someone asks me what to read next.

💞ARC Review💞

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Oh my God, Katherine Center, you’ve done it again! I have enjoyed every single one of your books that I’ve read and I’ve been incredibly lucky to receive the last two as digital ARCs from Netgalley. I looooved this!

First of all, a story about two writers writing a rom com and falling in love while doing so? Brilliant. Without giving any spoilers, there was so much in this book that I adored. The fact that I just knew Charlie was in awe of Emma and was going to love her the moment she launched into her evening of ripping his script to shreds, the fact that she was his adoring fan and got a reality check when she met him in person but then went back to adoring him in another way, the fact that he took care of her from afar even when she didn’t want it but really did need it, the fact that he threw these random compliments out there to her every so often that made me swoon, the fact that he braved the water to jump in after her even though he was deathly afraid, the fact that she got him over his writer’s block and made it her mission to change his opinions of rom coms…. I could keep going.

I adored this book, adored the ending, and would love to see this changed into an actual rom com in the screen because oh lord would this be a perfect movie.

Read this! You won’t regret it.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center releases on June 11, 2024.

📚 The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ~ 5 stars

I have enjoyed Katherine's books for the past several years, but this one was a fail for me. I couldn't bring myself to care anything about the characters or the absurdity of the situations they found themselves in. I may listen on audio later to see if that makes a difference for me.

This is an enjoyable read but I did find parts of it to be a bit slow. I didn't feel much chemistry between the main characters for awhile because of how slow the story progressed. The LA setting was fun and I liked the premise of the book! 3.5 stars

4 stars. Let me start by saying that Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors, and I look forward to her summer releases every year. So I was super excited to get an ARC of The Rom-Commers, which sounded incredible from the blurb. And it was incredible… for like 66%. And then one scene happened that really didn’t jive with me. And that one scene set the stage for other scenes that really didn’t jive with me. And caused me to almost dislike both of the characters. So for me, the first 2/3 of the book are 5 stars. The last 1/3 is 3 stars. Which gives us 4 stars overall.

So… what did I like? The writing. Katherine’s books are written so damn well and are just so damn easy to read. Even when I’m not jiving with the plot or character development, her books are still unputdownable. I also marvel that Center can bring humor to even the saddest and serious of scenes. I can be on the brink of tears, and then her characters will say something and I’m laughing. I truly can’t praise her writing enough. I also love books that are about books (or in this case… screen plays), so the fact that both characters were writers was something that I really found to be a lot of fun. And for at least 2/3 of the book, I liked the relationships (romantic and familial). All in all, this isn’t my favorite Katherine Center book, and in general, it’s also not a bad book. I can see people really enjoying this one, which to be fair, was also mostly the case for me. And I can absolutely say that I will 100% continue to read her books, and I’m excited for whatever comes next from her.

Thank you to Center, Netgalley, and SMP for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 (5 Stars)
Steam: just kissing

No spoiler review 👇🏻👇🏻

I was so pumped when I got an ARC of this book. I have read two other books by this author and have absolutely loved them, and this book is not different. This was such a great read! This book follows Emma and gets hired to co write a rom com with her favourite Hollywood writer..the only problem is he doesn’t want to write this movie. It’s fun, close proximity, banter filled and swoony! It is also full of emotion and a story that sucks you in. Katherine Center is one of my favourite authors, and I’m excited to read more from her in the future. This is the perfect read for the summer.

CW: death of family member (past), caregiving of family member, family accident, cancer, medical issues

This was a cute and fun read. I love Katherine Center and her books. This book gives you all the feels and is worth the read. Thanks to netgalley and the publishing company for an opportunity to.read this book.

This was one of my favorite reads this year! I loved the banter between the characters. I was grinning to myself like a fool, while reading. The pacing was great, and I was constantly picking this book up to read more. I loved Charlie (MMC) so much. He’s a kind of a grumpy old man, but I was rooting for him and Emma (FMC) the whole time!
This was well written, imo- with more dialogue than monologue or “telling” which I appreciate.
If you like books about films or Hollywood writers/screenwriters, grumpy x sunshine, and love between colleagues - you would probably really enjoy this one!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this book!!!! The best rom-com feel good book of the summer! Emma is a fantastic character - funny, charming & loving! The chemistry between her & Charlie jumps off the page. Couldn’t put the book down!